Public Nudity

[Vonny]

Well, the one Viking in the lagoon. Hm. A Viking can be female, in which case -sure.

Yeah, but I think there's only one blue lagoon, and it's already taken.

[Melysnl]

I'm all for it on a beach in the Caribbean somewhere. I had a blast hanging out on the beach in St. Maarten in only a thong. I even let a couple of people photograph me there. It's okay to do it on special occasions overseas. In American culture, it just doesn't fly.

[Varenne Rodin]

I'm generally against public nudity, especially around children. I enjoy being naked, sleeping and swimming naked, that's nice. Overall I'm a very modest girl.

There's a nude beach about an hour from my house. I didn't know it was there. A girlfriend of mine and I went to see a sand castle contest. When it was over we walked along beach trails to a cove. We were approached by a very tall naked man. He asked us what time it was and said (I'm not kidding) "A watch doesn't really go with this outfit." It was then we noticed other naked people scattered about the beach. We were 16. We ran as fast as we could away from the horror. Those were some very ugly nakeds.

I participated in some fashion events in Miami. The fitting rooms didn't have individual stalls, just giant rooms with wall to wall mirrors and 20-40 women at a time in all states of undress. I felt shy about it at first, but that goes away, especially when dressers and stylists are ripping clothes off of girls, stuffing breasts into bras, taping garments onto skin, rubbing makeup all over the place. I guess it wasn't a bad experience with "public" nudity, just strange. It was much better than the nude beach.

[cl154576]

I'm still a child so that probably affects my view but it disgusts me. In statues and babies I don't mind it, but when people expose themselves simply to show off, it strikes me as quite base. Some of you have too much lust.

If this trend of lower tops and shorter bottoms continues, I think someday I will hide myself in the trees and wrap curtains around my body for clothes.

[Varenne Rodin]

I'm still a child so that probably affects my view but it disgusts me. In statues and babies I don't mind it, but when people expose themselves simply to show off, it strikes me as quite base. Some of you have too much lust.

If this trend of lower tops and shorter bottoms continues, I think someday I will hide myself in the trees and wrap curtains around my body for clothes.

You're so smart, cl, and a gentleman already. Those who raised you must be very proud.

[farnoosh]

I really don't care if there is nudity in public, cause normally i don't pay attention to these stuff and my eyes are usually( not intentionally)glued to the ground or to an object far away (normally my father says i'm in space).as for myself, I hate to expose anypart.
But with what i've read on this thread i would make a fool out of myself if i went to such places (blue lagoon or the beach that Varenne described) simply because i find it rather hilarious and VERY funny!!!!

[Alexander III]

For.
For any number of reasons.
I'm from Guelph, Ontario, and we are the home of a woman who fought for women to have the right to be topless in public (as well as men) and some friends and I celebrate this every year with a topless bike ride.

I have just found paradise. It is Guelph. Guelph, Ontario.


But on a more serious note

I think people look better nude than clothed. And this is not lust talking, I think men look better nude too, the sensibilities and lines of the body are beautiful and clothes hide and distort them.

But then again, outside of university nudity is shunned, and with reason. I mean the body in youth is beautiful, the body of old age is repugnant.

But the human body in youth is something of extreem beauty, that beauty which you want to stare at all day and get lost in, that beauty that is just as enticing the day you first see it, as the 1000th day you see it.

I had the fortune of Seeing the David live, and it blew my mind. For when it comes to the male body I look upon it undhindered by lust, and in it I find something far more delicate and beautiful than that of the female body. I don't know why, but I do.

I mean look at this:

I'm generally against public nudity, especially around children. I enjoy being naked, sleeping and swimming naked, that's nice. Overall I'm a very modest girl.

Im glad someone brought up the naked children thing. Personally I am fine with it and see nothing wrong with it.

I remember, I used to live in a condominium of all expat families. All the european mums would let their children wander around the pool and shower naked. And all the American mum's were horrified that we europeans would let our children be so "exposed"

A child is so undeveloped that I hardly see the problem with a naked one, they are still not sexual beings, so I don't see why we should treat them as such. I remember, when I was little I used to often bathe together with the daughter of my mother's good friend. Most american mums were horrified by the idea. To me it seems quite natural. Of course they stopped bathing us together when, after one bath we asked our parents why I had "a little thing" and why she didn't have one as well. I was a slow child, only after 2 years of bathing with a girl did I realize that girls don't have "little thing"...

If this trend of lower tops and shorter bottoms continues, I think someday I will hide myself in the trees and wrap curtains around my body for clothes.

Shhhhhhhhh - you will jinx it and ruin it for the rest of us

[Revolte]

In all seriousness I'm for it. I don't see how nudity is a bad thing anyway. Granted you might not wanna go tripping into everybody, for obvious reasons (including catching something). But other then well placed clumsiness I really don't see any harm in it and it would probably do a lot of people some good to not be afraid of seeing themselves and others naked, might help grow some confidence.

This is not directed at anyone in particular, but I find the claims of nudity and lust being concretely linked to be a bit disturbing. There tends to be less sexual tension when two lovers (or potential lovers) are laying naked together, then when they are fully clothed and making small talk. I think that by demonizing the naked body as a tool of lust, and treating lust as an affliction of mental disease and consequence of cruelness, we are separating ourselves from our bodies. And by doing so we create fears in our nakedness and the nakedness of others around us (Hes naked, so am I, therefor he must be preparing to rape me. So my nudity is the cause of my body being soiled). Which of course presses the idea even further that being naked in non "secure" environments, such as our bed and bathrooms, is a moral crime (with the impression that it will become a physical crime). The end game of this downward spiral results in the overwhelming amount of eating disorders and poor self image. As someone with both, I am well aware that the more I hear about "this is how you should look in little to no clothes" can push forward feelings of insecurity and progress the "disorders" into dangerous extremes. Where as if we started to view nudity as the norm, there is a high possibility that we would start to see the naked body as something to be appreciated and cared for (like how we do with our other visible parts, like our hair and fingernails). And once that happens the worry of aggressive lust should be brought down a few notches from where it stands where we are now, fully clothed, nervous and curious.

[osho]

If you take nudity for beauty it is OK. The way you look at a nude dog. The way you see a nude child. This is a beauty, an artifact. You stint somebody the right of what he or she comes with birth.

If I want to see a nude body, in full and unclothed with no malice
If I want to kiss her naked body with no remorse and she feels elevated

Tell me where is ugliness

[Lokasenna]

The trouble is that such a viewpoint is subjective - not everybody can admire the beauty of the naked form.

Quite a lot of the undergrads here seem to engage in casual nudity - most often in the stretch of corridor that links the shower blocks with the student dorms. While they might think they are being free-spirited and uninhibited, it really isn't fair on other people who use that corridor as a main route for getting round the college buildings, myself included. If I'm going to the Great Hall for lunch or something, I don't want to suddenly turn a corner and find myself looking at the last turkey in the shop - it's rather off-putting. Others might find it beautiful, but I'm afraid I do not.

A lot of the sports societies also seem to have weird rituals that involve public nudity. The number of times I've seen the rowing/rugby/football crowd parading around outside stark bollock naked in the middle of winter amongst the falling snow is really horrifying. Not only is hypothermia a worryingly real possibility, but sub-zero temperatures really do the human body no favours on the visual front either.

One of my ex-girlfriend's parents used to go on holiday to some nudist camp somewhere. She went with them, as it was the 'family holiday', but she used to hate it, and always insisted on wearing a bikini or something. I'll always remember something she said about it: "Why is it always the one's who have nothing to display that want to show off?" To put it simply, in her experience the people with beautiful bodies seemed the least inclined to public nudity.

Try it. When you next go to the supermarket (as I am about to do), just look around at all the people and ask yourself just how many of them you would actually like to see naked? If it's 15%, you've been lucky.

[Emil Miller]

Well there are different aspects to nudity. I once worked with a m an who was a nudist but none of his colleagues, including myself, knew of it.
Then, one day, a new member of staff came along and became friendly with the nudist to the point that he was invited to attend the nudist camp one weekend. That was how we got to know about the nudist's penchant for public display. Previously I had been introduced to his wife who was, shall we say, a well-built woman in a rotund sort of way and when the new staff member revealed that he had spent part of the nude weekend playing table tennis with her, it conjured up a mental picture both hilarious and strangely satisfying at the same time.
If using the supermarket analogy we arrive at 15% of customers as being fit for full frontal display, imagine what the percentage would be for a Wetherspoons pub. By my reckoning it would be zero and that includes the barmaids.

[Melysnl]

The derelicts and pedophiles ruin it for everyone else. Kids and public nudity in America shouldn't ever mix.

If America was comfortable with public nudity we would already have public bath houses like in Japan or nudity in ads like in parts of Europe. I remember traveling to Germany and seeing nude girls on regular tv any night of the week after 10 pm.

Our society can't handle it. It's taboo and too late to change now.

[LitNetIsGreat]

If using the supermarket analogy we arrive at 15% of customers as being fit for full frontal display, imagine what the percentage would be for a Wetherspoons pub. By my reckoning it would be zero and that includes the barmaids.

Ha, ha, I thought of that. You should even see my local supermarket, Nebitville - it's enough to put you off nudity for life. I'm going to find it difficult popping in there the next time I shop. I'm going to imagine more than I bargained for.

[Lokasenna]

To report back on my morning mission to ASDA, I can honestly say that there was not one single person I saw there who I would want to see naked. Not one. Ancient and/or obese seemed to be the order of the day.

[Varenne Rodin]

Exactly right. The nude beach was disgusting. I'm a sculptor. I love the human form. I've even seen elderly people who exercised regularly and kept lovely figures. The nude beach, however, was filled with the worst formed people I have seen. I don't think their nudity inspired them at all to improve their fitness, or shower, or get their skin infections looked at by doctors.

A room full of naked models was fine. Go figure.

I do think there should be more nudity in some films. For fun, but also for realism. I understand not allowing for child nudity, but what's wrong with adults being naked together in a movie scene? America gives action movies full of killing PG ratings, but a bare breast is an automatic R. Fake sex that looks too real gets an NC17, which would be death to box office sales, so no respecting U.S. director puts it in movies anymore. 80s movies were full of random nakedness in lighthearted comedies, and I was not warped by them as a small child.

There are so many variables to this nudity thing. The human body as art is beautiful. Two people enjoying intimacy together is fantastic. Being naked all the time, along with everyone else, is not sanitary or civilized. We may as well become tribal again and live in mud huts. Gravity would weigh down certain parts. Weather, parasites and infection would pose more serious problems. A lot of people express themselves artistically in the clothes they choose. I would miss that.

Seeing random people in obvious states of arousal would make for some very awkward situations as well. There is much to be said for mystique, and value in only bestowing certain privileges to a select person.